Improvement in machines for cutting off cigars



F. W. HOFFMANN.

Cigar Cutter. I

Patented Nov. 13,1866.

fnven or r UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK W. HOFFMANN, OF MORRISANIA, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR CUTTING OFF CIGARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 59,606, dated November 13, 1866.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FREDERICK W. HOFF- MANN, of Morrisania, in the county of Westchester, in the State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Machine for Outting off the Ends of Cigars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

Figure I represents a top view or plan. Fig. II is an end view of the same; and Fig. III is a longitudinal section, with the knife-stand broken off.

A is the frame, made with a recess or cavity,f, in or near the middle, to receive the cigar to be cut off. A guide, B, is arranged to slide on the top of the frame, and provided with a set-screw. a, to fasten said guide B in any desired position. ()n the forward end of the frame A guides C and D are provided on each side of the recessf, and on one corner, near this forward end of the frame, a tube, E, is fixed, into which a plunger or rod, F, is

V fitted, on the lower end of which the knife G is attached. Below the plunger or rod F a spiral spring is placed in the pipe or tube E, so as to keep the rod F, together with the knife (l, on the top end of its motion. The tube E is provided with a suit-able slot, d, to allow the knife G to be moved downward. The lower or cutting edge of the knife is made slanting, and the same is attached to the rod F only near its upper end, to allow a slight feathering motion to the same. The outside surface of the guide 0 is made slanting inward near its upper end, to prevent the knife in its downward motion striking on the top of said guide, and at the same time to guide said knife close to the edge. The guide D is provided near its upper end with a projecting piece, a, so arranged that during the downward motion of the knife G the inner surface of this projecting piece a will force or guide the knife close against the outer edge of the frame A.

By this arrangement of the guide 0 acting against one side of the knife, and the guide D, with its projecting piece a, acting against the other or outer side of the knife G, togetherwith the arrangement of attaching the knife G to its rod F only near its upper end, so as to allow to the knife-blade an easy feathering motion, I insure always a perfectly close contact of the knife-blade with the forward end or edge of the frame A. when the knife is forced downward, so as to cut off the cigar placed into the recess or cavity f on the plate A perfectly smooth and square.

To operate this machine, the guide B is first fixed at any desired distance from the forward edge of the frame A corresponding with the length the cigars are to be cut off. The cigar is then placed into the recess f, when the knife G is forced downward by striking upon the knob H on the top of the rod or plunger F.

What I claim as myinvention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The construction of a plate, A, provided with a movable guide, B, and guides O and D at the forward end'of said plate, in combination with a knife, G, fast to a rod or plunger, F, moving in an upright tube or pipe, E, at tached to said plate A, when the whole is arranged and combined in the manner and for the purpose substantially as described and specified.

2. The projecting piece a on the guide D, acting in combination with the guide O on the flexible or feathering knife-blade G, in the manner and for the purpose substantially as set forth.

FREDERICK WV. HOFFMANN.

Witnesses:

HENRY E. RoEDER, J NO. P. BYERS. 

